


French Toast

by Lucca_Kane



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Stripper/Exotic Dancer, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, The Stripper! AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 04:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3637317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucca_Kane/pseuds/Lucca_Kane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long night of work at the club, Bull wakes to find Dorian already up, and making breakfast.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is from a Stripper!AU my friend and I have been planning for a really long time but just can't get around to sitting down and actually writing. We can only write snippets and its tragic.</p>
<p> Can be read as a stand alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	French Toast

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the summary this is from an AU a friend and I have spent a lot of time on but can't be bothered to write down completely, so all there is is snippets. This is one of those.
> 
> Can be read as a stand alone.
> 
> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own!

                Bull yawns, scratching at his stomach underneath his shirt as he wanders into the kitchen, lead by the lovely smell of French toast. He cracks open his eye and sees that it's Dorian, not Krem, who is standing at the stove, expertly taking a piece of bread and dunking it into the egg and milk concoction before dumping it in the pan with more grace than a person should. Bull notices that Dorian isn't wearing any of his rings, as a matter of fact; they're in a tiny pile next to one of the places set at the table. "I was wondering where you ran off to," Bull jokes, stretching and letting out a grunt when his left shoulder cracks.

                Dorian, to his credit, doesn't jump or yelp, just flinches. Bull sees it and doesn't think much of it, but when Dorian doesn't turn around to admonish him with some quip it gives Bull pause. The hulking Qunari watches for a moment before walking over to the shorter man, who adds the now finished toast to the growing pile on the plate. "Well well, never pinned you for a guy who knows how to cook," Bull says good-naturedly, leaning against the countertop and looking at Dorian out of the corner of his good eye. Dorian's head is down, seemingly focused on his task, but it seems, empty, repetitive, especially when Dorian once again doesn't answer with a dramatic , 'Of course I can cook, Bull, I'm not an _animal_. Who do you take me for?' or something of the sort. Dorian is silent for a terse moment before quietly saying, "It's only this really."

                Bull is on high alert now. He fully looks at Dorian, well as much as he can with Dorian still focused on the pan. The Tevinter man had become more and more lax with Bull seeing him disheveled and anything less than perfect, especially in the mornings, but Dorian was immaculate. Even so early in the morning his hair and moustache have not a hair out of place, and the kohl lining his eyes are winged to perfection, but Bull can see—even with his limited vision—that Dorian's eyes are red rimmed underneath the makeup. "You ok?"

                He doesn't expect anything less than a, 'fine, just tired' from the other man, but Dorian surprises him for the third time this morning when he answers with, "My father called me this morning."

                Bull knows he's treading into dangerous waters now, so he has to choose his words carefully, one wrong word and it could close Dorian off. "Earlier?" He asks softly.

                Dorian nods and is silent as he flips another finished toast onto the pile. "It was late afternoon in Tevinter....my father still doesn't understand time zones." Bull hears the slight waver in his voice, ever so quickly masked with a breathless chuckle. "Like the whole world should follow his time and his schedule."

                 Dorian is sliding into that dark place again, the place where all his pain is covered up with sarcasm and barbs and Maker forbid, alcohol, an Bull can't let him get there, never again. Dorian should feel safe in this house, safe around him, but he still has to be so careful because he himself can send Dorian careening down that path. He knows Dorian and his father aren't on speaking terms really on a good day, but whatever warranted the great Halward Pavus to call his son must have been important. "Did you answer?" Bull asks. He can't ask what they talked about, but if Bull knows Dorian answered—which he highly suspects he did—Bull knows it's the cause of Dorian's behavior and can help the man take a step back towards the right direction, back towards him.

                Bull almost misses the 'yes' come out of Dorian's mouth because it's so small and pathetic it almost sounds like a choked off sob. But Dorian resolutely clears his throat. "Yes."

                "Did you fight?" It's a risky question, but Bull needs to know. He asks it slowly and deliberately, giving Dorian any chance to change the subject or not answer.

                 Dorian lets out another heartbreaking chuckle. "I lost the energy to fight with my father long ago. Sometimes he calls when he's drunk or he's angry and needs someone to yell at. I stopped arguing; I hardly even listen but if I don't answer or hang up on him he'll just call me back. It's relentless." Dorian's carefully constructed mask starts to crack and fall away, and his eyes shine with tears that he so furiously tries to blink away. Bull wants to reach out for him but he knows, knows that Dorian has to get it all out first before he even thinks of touching him. "But he called me this morning and started his usual tirade about how I was ruining the family name and how he would never accept his son who was not only gay but also a whore which I've heard a thousand times..." he trails off with a shaky sigh and Bull can't help it. He shifts close and puts a gentle hand on Dorian's shoulder. One movement, that one movement and the mask shatters and all the tears and frustration all come out, leaking down Dorian's face and dripping onto his designer shirt.

                 "What did he say differently?" Bull asks.

                Dorian finally looks at him, switching off the stove in the process. The perfectly lined kohl is beginning to smudge and trail down his cheeks, his grey eyes shining with so much hurt and betrayal and honest _concern_ that an echo of it throbs in Bull's chest. "What was it Dorian?" He whispers.

                Dorian sniffs and when he speaks his voice breaks between sobs. "He just—he just kept going. Told me I'm the scum of the Earth that he should have never cared for. All that he's done for me was worth nothing because—because I am nothing."

                "Dorian—" Bull starts but the other man interrupts him.

                "He told me he knew who you are Bull, used your name and everything," the Tevinter man sounds more scared than Bull has ever heard him. "He said, 'I know exactly who you kneel before each night, Dorian. I know how you willingly submit yourself to that filthy Ox.'" Dorian hiccups he begins to sob so hard. "He said, 'I will find the Iron Bull, and I will have him killed. I will order my men to cut off his horns and have them mounted on my wall. Then I will drag you back home and I will _force_ you to look at them every day, and you will look at them, and know it was _your_ fault, that your precious Bull was ripped from this world. And you _will_ be married Dorian, you _will_ produce an heir, it's only a matter of time.'"

                 Bull has never wanted to hurt someone more in his life than in this exact moment, but that's not who Dorian needs right now. He doesn't need the Bull who will destroy anyone who speaks ill of him—he couldn't care less of what Halward Pavus thinks of him—he needs the Bull who coaxed and courted and loved this broken, desperate, vulnerable and lonely man. Dorian needs the Iron Bull who kisses the tears away, so Bull does just that. He takes Dorian's face in his large hands and kisses at Dorian's eyes, not caring if he gets kohl smudged on his lips. Dorian on the other hand beats his fists against his chest.

                " _Venhedis_! This is not the time to try to placate me you lummox!" He screeches, but it comes out raw and with no heat behind it.

                Bull kisses at the tear tracks leading all the way to Dorian's lips, and then kisses them too for good measure. "There is nothing in this world or the next that could rip me from you, especially not a balding business man from Tevinter and his 'lackeys'." Bull whispers against Dorian's lips before kissing them again.

                Dorian chuckles again, but this time there is actual amusement in the sound."Pavus men don't go bald."

                Bull chuckles back—more of a rumble than anything—and moves a hand to play with the closer shaven parts of Dorian's hair at the back of the man's head. "Good to know," he says before kissing Dorian a third time.

                When they part, Dorian seems to have pulled himself back together a bit. He still sniffles, but he carefully wipes his tears away, trying his best to save the rest of his kohl without access to a mirror. Bull smiles at him and Dorian hiccups and sniffs before saying, "I know I shouldn't have let it get to me, but I was so scared Bull. The possibility that my father could find you— _did_ find you—terrified me so much. The thought of losing you—" he cuts himself off with a bite to his lip.

                Bull cradles Dorian's head and his cheek, smiling softly at him. Dorian did this a lot at the beginning of their relationship, when he was still trying to keep his heart safe. If he didn't tell too much he wouldn't have to worry, but Bull spent so much time gently pulling Dorian out from behind those walls that he can't have him go back again. "Tell me?" He asks tenderly, kissing at Dorian's cute little birthmark that at one point he swore was also makeup. He can feel the heat of Dorian's face as he blushes. Bull pulls back just enough so he can look at him, a blushing Dorian is a rare occurrence.

                Dorian sniffs again—he's too dignified to wipe his nose against his shirt or something like a normal person—and he takes a deep breath like Bull taught him to do before every time he was about to express something that was hard for him. "The thought of losing you, would break my heart in a way I don't believe it would ever recover."

                Bull can't help but smile at Dorian, who flushes darker and shifts his gaze, only to return it before Bull even has to open his mouth to ask him to. He's getting better, so much better than before. In Dorian's own special way, he's practically confessed his undying love and passion for Bull, and Bull will take what he can get. He cradles Dorian's jaw and kisses him, closing his eye and just letting his lips rest on Dorian's. When they break the kiss Bull stays in close. "I love you too," he says. Dorian more feels it against his lips than hears it and it sends his face flushing all over again and Bull laughs wholeheartedly this time.

                A clearing of a throat breaks their focus from one another and onto Krem, who is standing in the entrance to the kitchen, in his pajamas with his hair every which way and half yawning as he speaks. "Are you guys having a moment or is that French toast up for grabs?"

                Dorian sniffs again, shifting out of Bull's intimate space but taking a hand in his. His kohl is smudged to all hell and his eyes are probably red but he's ok. He's here with Bull and Krem and he's happy, father be damned. "Help yourself," he says with a smile, gesturing to the plate of French toast.

                They put another place for Krem and all eat breakfast together. Krem comments that the toast is good even though he's drowned it in so much butter and syrup he probably can't taste the bread. Dorian puts his rings back on and grabs for Bull's free hand under the table without looking at Bull, maintaining a conversation with Krem, all smiles and good natured barbs. Bull's finger fiddles with one of Dorian's rings as they eat. Krem is right, the French toast is delicious and he hums as he eats, leaning down to kiss Dorian on his birthmark again. Dorian's face is warm and Bull decides not to draw attention to it. "Well done."

                 Dorian knows he means more than just the French toast. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this is out of character but honestly at this point I don't care I still like it.


End file.
